Research and Education

Visual culture, including television, film, magazines, and photographs, played a central role in the U.S. Civil Rights movement. Photographs called national and international attention to racism and anti-black violence in the United States. Meanwhile, magazines such as Ebony and Jet changed how Americans viewed race, as did films like Carmen Jones and A Raisin in the Sun. For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights is an online resource that accompanies a traveling exhibition that was curated by Dr. Maurice Berger of the Center for Art, Design and Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, co-organized by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visitors can check out the exhibition's schedule in the availability section of this website. An online version of this exhibit, which features captioned photographs of exhibition materials, can be found in the online tools section. Teachers may want to visit the lessons for educators section, which features three lesson plans for middle school students. While these lesson plans are designed to accompany an exhibition visit, they may also be used in tandem with the online exhibit. This website also includes a bibliography for further research and a helpful glossary. [MMB]

The New Jersey Center for Teaching & Learning is a nonprofit organization dedicated to K-12 STEM education. On the organization's course materials page, educators will find a number of free resources for teaching math and science. These resources, which were designed by a team of STEM educators, include presentations, homework assignments, lab activities, and assessments. This collection includes math and science resources in both English and Spanish, along with a few English-language resources in English language arts and computer science. Materials are organized by subject and grade level for easy browsing. Grade levels range from kindergarten to advanced high school, including resources for advanced placement calculus, physics, biology, and chemistry. [MMB]

Over the years, San Francisco's Exploratorium has created a number of fabulous science teaching resources. The Iron Science Teacher is a friendly competition modeled after the TV show Iron Chef. In each 30-60 minute video, four science educators appear before a live audience of young scientists at the Exploratorium and are presented with the same "ingredients." Each educator then uses these ingredients to create an interactive classroom activity. For example, in the episode, "Secret Ingredient: Breakfast Foods," teachers demonstrate science concepts and a potential lab activity using Cheerios, eggs, and milk. This video series offers a number of innovative ideas for activities to implement in science classrooms and after-school programs. [MMB]

From Stanford University comes this extensive digital history project that provides insight into the experiences and legacy of nineteenth-century Chinese railroad workers in North America. This project was headed by history professor Gordon Chang, English professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin, and American Studies scholar Hilton Obenzinger, in collaboration with a number of experts and organizations from both the United States and China. For visitors who are unfamiliar with the history of Chinese railroad workers in the U.S., the FAQs and timeline sections offer a good introduction. The highlight of this project is the rich collection of primary source materials available via the impressive research section. These materials include photographs, oral history interviews with descendants of railroad workers, historic magazines (many of which are available courtesy of the California Digital Newspaper Collection), and more. Those interested in conducting further research on the subject may want to view the two historiographies listed on the research page. [MMB]

Launched in March 2010, the Journal for Artistic Research describes itself as, "an international, online, open-access and peer-reviewed journal that disseminates artistic research from all disciplines." The journal is edited and reviewed by an international team of art scholars. JAR distinguishes itself from other online journals by offering multimedia articles (called "Expositions") that incorporate images and videos that aren't always linear. In the current issue of the journal, filmmaker Susannah Gent discusses her short, experimental film Unhomely Street and the role of philosophy, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis in the film. Her exposition features a number of images that inspired her film. Meanwhile, in another exposition, Meghan Moe Beitiks describes her project, "Systems of Pain/Networks of Resilience," which incorporates interviews with a number of individuals about trauma and recovery. [MMB]

As the team behind this digital archive explains, fourteenth century English theologian John Wyclif has been described as, "the morning star of the Reformation" and also has been accused of supplying, "lying insanities in the ears of many." Wyclif, who was also a Biblical translator and seminary professor at Oxford, "contributed to nearly a century of religious dissent in late-medieval England and to England's first popular heretical movement, known as the Lollards." On this website, which was created by Fordham University theology professor J. Patrick Hornbeck, students of theology and philosophy can explore the works that Wycliff offered in Latin. While readers of Latin can explore these texts in their original language, the website also allows provides Google translations beside each paragraph. [MMB]

SciJinks is a resource for K-12 science educators created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) dedicated to teaching young scientists about weather and weather-related careers. This resource contains interactive games, educational videos, images, posters, and classroom activities. Educators and students can browse these resources in a number of ways. In the topics section, materials are organized thematically: hurricanes and storms; clouds, water, and ice; tides and oceans; atmosphere, seasons, satellites and technology; and space weather. Visitors can also search materials by type of resource, including games, multimedia, and dispatches (short, illustrated explanations for phenomenon including El Nino and polar vortices.) Additional types of materials, including PDFs of classroom activities, can be browsed in the educators section. The people section contains short profiles of a number of weather professionals, offering young scientists a glimpse into possible future career paths. [MMB]

The Economic Policy Institute's Multimedia page offers a wealth of resources that may especially appeal to economics instructors, students, journalists, and grant writers. These resources include video, audio, infographics, interactives, and presentations. In the video section, visitors will find conference presentations along with television appearances by EPI economists. Similarly, the audio section features clips from shows such as NPR's Planet Money. The infographics and interactives sections present a variety of data about economics and labor issues in the United States. Finally, the presentations section includes recorded content from EPI staff, accompanied by a short essay that outlines the presentation. [MMB]

General Interest

In autumn of 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and shortly thereafter, by the Soviet Union. In December 1939, the Soviet Union exiled Polish individuals deemed, "politically unreliable elements," to deportation centers in the Soviet Union. There, those individuals faced brutal conditions and violence. Some were murdered in the 1940 Katyn Massacre, while many others died of starvation in the gulags. In 1941 and 1942, Wladyslaw Anders, who headed the Polish Armed Forces of the East (known as "Anders' Army"), evacuated thousands of Polish refugees to Iran. These evacuees included soldiers that Anders had recruited from deportation centers as well as civilians. Between 1942 and 1945, many of these refugees traveled from Iran to India, where they resettled. The Polish consulate in Mumbai (modern-day Bombay), with support and leadership from Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji, also resettled hundreds of orphaned children refugees in Balachadi. This Google Arts and Culture page from the Polish History Museum is dedicated to the experiences of Polish refugees in India. Through photographs, maps, and documents, this powerful online exhibit illuminates an important and often overlooked chapter of history. [MMB]

Hi-Phi Nation is a podcast that describes itself as, "a show about philosophy that turns ideas into stories." The podcast is hosted by Barry Lam, a philosophy professor at Vassar College. Launched in January 2017, this podcast is now in its second season, with 13 episodes available as of this write-up. In each 30-60 minute episode, Lam explores a different philosophical question or idea, often with a number of guest experts. In one recent episode, The Bottom of the Curve, Lam explores the commonality of the mid-life crisis and the factors that contribute to happiness and unhappiness at different stages of life. In another episode, The Ashes of Truth, Lam discusses a 1971 encounter between documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (who is interviewed in the episode) and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, author of the 1965 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. At the heart of the conflict between Morris and Kuhn were questions about the nature of truth. Each episode of this podcast is accompanied by suggested resources for those interested in exploring topics further. Lam plans to release new episodes at least once a month in 2018, so stay tuned. Fans of this podcast can subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Google Play. [MMB]

William Smith (1769-1839) was a land surveyor, mineral prospector, and geologist best known for creating the geological map of England and Wales in 1815. In addition, Smith completed a number of geological maps of individual English counties between 1819 and 1824. On this website, visitors can explore Smith's maps, which have been digitized courtesy of the National Museum of Wales, Stanford University, the University of Nottingham, and the Oxford University Museum of National Geography. Visitors can explore Smith's maps via the maps tab, alongside other historical and geological maps. These are organized on an interactive map of the United Kingdom. In addition, this website contains a biographical essay about Smith, along with an explanation of stratigraphy: "a part of geology concerned primarily with layering in sedimentary rocks." As the team behind this site notes, Smith used his knowledge of stratigraphy (although he never used the word) to create his impressive maps. [MMB]

Black holes, "the most enigmatic and exotic objects in the universe," are the subject of this new two-hour episode of PBS's NOVA, aired on January 10, 2018. Hosted by astrophysicist Janna Levin, this documentary explores how black holes were discovered and how these strange phenomena may have shaped our universe. Along the way, viewers are introduced to Karl Schwarzschild, the astronomer who proved that black holes were mathematically possible (to a skeptical Albert Einstein) and Jocelyn Bell, the graduate student who discovered a neutron star in 1967 and Paul Murdin, who identified Cygnus X-1, the first black hole to be identified in our galaxy. Through this link, visitors can watch the full episode and view the episode transcript. In addition, this episode is accompanied by a number of shorter clips that may be of interest. [MMB]

The Academy of American Poets's Poem-a-Day is, "is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 200 new, previously unpublished poems by today's talented poets each year." Each day, this website features a new poem, which visitors may choose to receive in their email inbox (by simply entering their email address in a sign-up box on the website) or explore on this site. The series features a blend of work from both contemporary poets and famous poets of yesteryear. Looking for a poem for a specific event or mood? This site also allows visitors to browse the Poem-a-Day archive by occasion (e.g. election day, break-ups, graduation), by theme (e.g. environment, parenting, vanity), or by form (e.g. acrostic, haiku, sonnet). [MMB]

Fans of the Golden Gate City will love FoundSF, "a wiki that invites history buffs, community leaders, and San Francisco citizens of all kinds to share their unique stories, images, and videos from past and present." This wiki is hosted by Shaping San Francisco, an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing San Francisco history. On FoundSF, anyone is invited to edit or add articles or media that document any aspect of San Francisco history. Visitors can browse this wiki by decade, neighborhood, population, or theme. In addition, FoundSF features eleven tours, which are collections of multiple pages that illuminate a certain aspect of San Francisco history. Tours include the Historic Habitat and Wild Species Tour, Transit History Tour, and Food Tour. [MMB]

The official blog of Britain's National Portrait Gallery is an exemplar of a good museum blog. Each entry provides additional insight into the works at the National Portrait Gallery accompanied by plenty of images of artwork. As a result, the blog can be enjoyed by art fans around the world, while also offering a helpful educational tool that will enhance visits to the National Portrait Gallery. Recent entries highlight the self-portraits of Paul Cezanne, the work of photographer Charlie Clift, and a pair of "Curator's Choice" blog posts, in which gallery curators select their favorite works in the museum. Visitors can browse previous blog posts by portraiture periods (including Tudor, 20th century, contemporary) or medium (painting, photography, or sculpture.) In addition, visitors can browse entries that address what goes on behind the scenes at the museum (e.g. conservation, new additions). [MMB]

A number of institutions (including the Library of Congress) hold collections of photographer Dorothea Lange's work; her photos, particularly those created for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), have been published widely. Donated by the photographer and her husband Paul Taylor, Lange's personal archive, however, is at the Oakland Museum of California (OCMA).The photographer was based in the Bay Area from 1935 until her death in 1965, and her archive includes 25,000 negatives, 6,000 prints, field notes, and personal memorabilia. On the website, visitors can browse 199 images from OMCA's Dorothea Lange Collection, dating from the 1930s-1950s. The majority of the images were shot in California and the western U.S., but there are some photographs from Lange's travels to Ireland, such as Sunday, Western Ireland, 1954|(Going to) Church. OMCA recently mounted an exhibition of Lange's work, Politics of Seeing, which is on view May 13-August 27, 2017, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the donation of her archive. [DS]

Network Tools

Feed43 is an online service to generate RSS feeds for websites that do not already provide them. With this in place, users can be notified of new content on these sites using standard news aggregators (like feedly, newsblur, etc). Users need not create an account on the Feed43 site in order to begin creating feeds. To create a feed, users must specify a URL to check and a series of patterns that describe what to extract from that URL. A detailed pattern reference and step-by-step feed creation tutorial are available in Feed43's Help section. Users who opt to register for an account will gain access to additional features like a "My Feeds" dashboard and the ability to export a list of feeds as an OPML file. Feed43's free service tier includes an unlimited number of feeds, but limits these feeds to the 20 most recent items and updates them every six hours. Paid plans are available that incorporate larger numbers of items and more frequent updates. [CRH]

Library Extension detects when you're viewing a book or ebook on a site like Amazon or Goodreads and adds a box showing the availability of that item in your local library. If you have access to more than one local library, it is able to check all of them. When an item is available from your library, Library Extension will also include a link allowing you to reserve it. Library Extension currently integrates with over 4000 local libraries. Users can request support for additional libraries with a simple contact form. Users do not need to register for any additional accounts to use Library Extension. Currently, Library Extension is available for Google Chrome. A version for Mozilla Firefox is under development. [CRH]

Revisited

This blog combines two of our favorite things: history and culinary adventures. Originally featured in in 2016, Cooking in the Archives continues to be regularly updated with new recipes and historical tidbits.

Cooking in the Archives, "sets out to find, cook, and discuss recipes from cookbooks produced between 1600 and 1800." The blog is one of two planned products of a project begun in 2014 by Alyssa Connell, Assistant Director of Leadership Communications at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and Marissa Nicosia, Assistant Professor of English at Penn State Abington. Currently, there are about four dozen recipes on the blog, and in true scholarly fashion, most recipe posts are fully attributed and often include images of the original manuscript on which they are based. For example, the My Lady Chanworths recipe for jumballs (cookies) begins with an image and transcription of the original from LJS 165, a recipe book dated between 1690-1802, located in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at University of Pennsylvania. This is followed by a modernized version of the recipe, with updated measurements and instructions, and process and finished images of the jumballs. The second product of the project is a "final feast where we will share the fruits of our research with our mentors and peers," although the date of this feast does not seem to appear as of yet on the blog.

On Thursday, January 18, the annual Ceramics and Glass Fair opened in New York. The fair, sponsored by the journal Ceramics in America, is part of New York's Winter Antiques Fair. The event is unique because it features both antique ceramics as well as work by contemporary ceramics artists. This year, the fair features an extra special display: a collection of eighteenth-century pottery that a team of archaeologists just recently uncovered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between 2014 and 2016, a team of archaeologists excavated over 85,000 artifacts in the Old City district of Philadelphia, where the Museum of the American Revolution recently opened. In doing so, they discovered a collection of slipware ceramic plates in an old privy shaft. Slipware pottery, popular in seventeenth and eighteenth century France, is decorated with liquid clay in a process known as slip tailing. "It's going to surprise a lot of people that such visually impactful wares were being made in Philadelphia at that time," remarked archaeologist Alan Horrey on this recent discovery. [MMB]

The first three links take readers to three news stories about the slipware pottery exhibit at the Ceramics and Glass Fair. These summaries come from Carly Olson at Architectural Digest, Peter Libbey at The New York Times and the staff at ARTFIXdaily. Next, the fourth link takes readers to the website for Ceramics in America, the journal that is sponsoring the fair in New York. Here, interested visitors can read back issues of the journal. Next, visitors interested in learning more about the history of pottery may want to check out the fifth link, a blog authored by potter Steve Earp. Finally, for those interested in learning more about slipware pottery, the sixth link is to a short documentary film about contemporary potter Jean-Nicolas Gerard, who uses the slip technique.